It started well enough. I did well in the ground part, missed a couple questions but generally got the answers right. Starting the engine and taxiing out was OK, too. (I primed the engine a bit too long, but it still started without a problem.) The weather was beautiful, they even had runway 31 in use, which was supposedly the easier runway (and I haven't had the luck to use for quite a while because of the weather we'd been having). Departure was uneventful, and so was the climb and enroute to practice area.
The maneuvers started with clearing turns and slow flight, then power off stall, which I did pretty well. My power on stall was OK, too. Byron thought I was pulling too much on the power on stall so he showed me and asked me to do it again. Basically when you slow the plane down to 55kts you're already pulling the nose high enough, so just adding power and keep that pitch and it'll stall. I tried that and it went pretty well. Next was steep turns which I'd always have problem keeping altitude, and I lost 200 feet during the left turn, and 100 during the right turn. Byron remarked that I was paying too much attention to my instruments, and not looking outside enough. That's fine, I wasn't required to do steep turns to private pilot standards yet.
In retrospect, the next move was what threw my off initially and it was just downhill from there. With no warning Byron pulled power to idle and asked "the engine just died. what do you do?". I pitched for 68kts, then picked a flat field to my left about a mile out and turned towards it (mistakes: I had plenty of altitude, should circle around first, run through the engine failure check list, and see if there's a better field to land). While gliding towards my chose field it was obvious I was too high. I did a forward slip to lose altitude (huge mistake. slipping with the engine out is like blowing out air when you are trapped under water. altitude is your most precious asset when engine is out. i should have circled to lose altitude). In my poorly executed slip I didn't lose enough altitude and gained a lot of speed. At this point Byron asked me to circle around, which I did with my speed all over the place, from 68kts to well above 80. Finally he asked me to add power and go around, ending my pathetic emergency landing attempt.
Next he turned off my GPS and asked me to fly back to PAO. I first turned to get a better look at the coastline and determine where I was, then estimated a course of 80 back to PAO, which was probably going to work. After a minute he asked me to fly to a diversion airport. I chose to go to SQL but I got my location off by probably 6 miles. When I came over the ridge line I was a bit confused and couldn't find the airport. I started my descent (mistake: don't descend unless you know where the airport is. staying high makes it easier to see.) towards the San Mateo Bridge, thinking SQL should be in that general direction (it wasn't, and why I didn't check with the chart at this point was beyond me. I think I was already in a semi-panic state.). Byron kept quite but shortly after I passed 280 he took over the controls and made a steep turn back. I was getting dangerously close to SFO's class B airspace and if I had entered without authorization (which of course I didn't ask for, I didn't even know I was going to enter it. I thought I was somewhere down south.), could bring some FAA agents waiting for me at PAO after I land.
I stayed to the other side of 280, finally found SQL and called in. Runway 12 was in use. I overflew midfield and entered left pattern. Just as I was turning final my stall warning horn went on. I peeked at my airspeed and found myself flying at 55kts, 10 kts slower than I was supposed to be! Byron almost interfered but I increase my speed in time. The landing was down right ugly, though. I landed too flat and bounced quite a bit. Byron asked me to taxi off and back and asked me how I would rate that landing out of 10. I sheepishly said "4?". Nah, not even. He'd only give me a 2 for it. Landing on the nose gear is extremely bad form. I guess I didn't get a 1 because we were still able to taxi :P
We departed SQL for PAO. As I was climbing I tried to tune in for PAO's ATIS, but in my confused state turned of SQL tower by mistake, before they told me I could change my frequency. Oh well, that's nothing compared to all the mistakes I had made/would make today.
First landing at PAO I came in too high and decided to go around, and it didn't get much better from there. The traffic was a bit busy so I got extended downwind every time, and that threw me off a bit, too. For my no flaps landing I started fine but ended too fast and had to go around, too. I had to go around during another normal landing because I flared too early and as I was floating down the runway I got blown off by a bit crosswind and didn't correct it in time. All in all we tried 7 landings at PAO, and I didn't do a single good one. Byron asked me to taxi off, open the window and get some air, and told me not to freak myself out. Oh well, none of that worked. We finally ran out of time and had to terminate, and Byron thought I should practice landing some more and ride with him again when I'm ready. So, although this was not meant to be a test, I still failed it and have to re-take it sometime.
Some take away points from today's landings:
* get my approach steady. I was adjusting my power settings all the time and my pitch/speed weren't stable at all.
* be conscious about crosswind correction. I pretty much forgot about it and I was never centered on the runway.
* before starting the flare, look down the runway. I was looking too close down and wasn't judging my altitude correctly.
* flare more. I was too eager to let the nose drop.
So today was definitely an off day for me. But a pilot should be measured by his worst performance, and I guess this just means I'm not quite there yet.
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